Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the largest Igbo social and cultural group, has disagreed with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) decision to name Senator Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the president-elect. The group says it rejects the results as INEC announced them.
Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene, the national vice president of the group, said in a statement released in Awka on Wednesday that the group’s decision was based on what he called “monumental irregularities” and the fact that INEC did not follow its own rules when running the election.
The leader of Ohaneze told Nigerians to stay calm and said there were many steps to an election. He also noted that the 2023 presidential election might not be over yet.
He said: “With voting and declaration over, other processes will follow. I am sure that many Nigerians will, on their own, go to court to challenge the outcome of the exercise.
” Many people have not accepted the declaration, and many do not believe they have a president-elect yet.
“This is the worst election conducted by INEC. Imagine our president, Muhammadu Buhari, saying during one of the campaigns that Tinubu is the next president when the election had not been conducted, which was an indication that the election was even rigged before it was conducted.
“The INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, was busy promising Nigerians that their votes would count and that the ballots would be transmitted from the polling units to the INEC server, only for the commission to do everything manually with the attendant corrupt practices.
” As it turned out, many Nigerians voted, but their votes did not count, which was frustrating.
“If the LP goes to court, all the ugly things done during the February, 2023 presidential election will be exposed for the world to see.”
Okeke-Ogene also said that the LP and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, had changed how politics worked in the country and that things would never be the same again.
“Nigerians are now more determined to take back their country, and Ohaneze believes they will succeed.
“With what happened in states like Lagos, Plateau, Nasarawa, Kaduna and other places, it is obvious that Nigerians are no longer talking along tribal inclinations,” he said.
He told the rest of the world that they should not only send observers to Nigeria during elections but also punish those who hurt democracy there.
